Founder Mode

Paul Graham's essay "Founder Mode" argues that scaling a startup does not require switching to a manager style of running a company, and that founders who try to follow conventional management advice are often harmed by it. He cites Brian Chesky's talk at a YC event, in which Chesky says that advice to "hire good people and give them room to do their jobs" was disastrous for Airbnb, and that he instead studied how Steve Jobs ran Apple. The essay notes that many successful YC founders in the audience reported the same experience, and it predicts that founder mode will eventually be as well understood as manager mode, though it acknowledges that little is currently known about how it works.